Don’t give up your faith, it’s too beautiful

Don’t give up your faith, it’s too beautiful

Working in the Shelter is one of the best things I’ve done in my life. It taught me a lot about God; loving, serving and living with Him. It showed me very clearly what the difference is between a life without God and a life with Him and it taught me how to share this faith with people around me. Besides that, being in a community of Christians from all around the world and stirring each other up to follow God is great!

One of the really good things in the Shelter is the contact with the cleaners, who are mostly non-believers. They stay for one month in the Shelter, living alongside us. During this time they see how we try to live for God and serve Him. Every day before the cleaners begin their day of work, the cleaner supervisor spends 30 minutes reading the bible and discussing Jesus with them. We also offer the Alpha course, which explains the basics of Christianity. I’m always amazed how open most of them are. It takes courage to ask them to do an introduction course to Christianity. Furthermore, the Alpha is giving me a boost in my own walk with God too.

We once had a cleaner who was very rational in his way of thinking. Despite being raised in a Christian home, he decided many years ago the would not believe in God, as a result of some hard things in his life. The environment at the Shelter began to change his thought process. Through an Alpha course, he realized that relying on rationality alone was bringing him nowhere. I could see him starting to change. In one of the first lessons of the course he told me not to give up on God. He said, “What you people have here is something very special. Don’t give up your faith, it’s too beautiful. I gave up on it, but it didn’t bring me anywhere”.

That’s sometimes how people begin to change; they see we have something they yearn for. This cleaner realized he needed God again and still comes back to the Shelter every now and then for the Alpha course, evening prayer, or Bible Discussion.

The best part of the Shelter is seeing people realize that there is a God who loves them. It is beautiful to see them understand more and more of what Christ has done for us, and what that means for them. That He died on a cross for us – which seemed ridiculous at first. It is wonderful to live this message out together as a team, and share this message to guests, cleaners and others who walk through our doors.

I pray that God will use this experience to prepare me for my job after this Shelter time. I hope I will share Him, not only here in the Shelter, but in my ‘regular’ life afterwards.

Thank you for reading this. I pray you will be blessed in your daily life!

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Frequently Asked Questions

We ask a fee of €60,00 per month for the food. With this fee we provide you with all the meals and drinks you need. This includes breakfast, lunch and dinner (as much as you want!). You can have your meals at the hostel and in the community house. You will work with us on a voluntary basis. So we will not give pocket money to our volunteers. Therefore we recommend you to bring some extra money to spend, if you want to explore the cities’ activities or to buy clothes.

Every two weeks you get a schedule of your activities. Most shifts are divided into morning, afternoon and evening shifts and last for about 6 hours. These shifts vary from cafe work to cleaning supervisor to reception work. At 6 PM the volunteers have dinner together in the café (Jordan) or in the staff meeting room (City). On this page you will find an example of what a week schedule can look like.

Shifts

Short term volunteers will mainly be working in the hostel café. This means preparing food, serving guests, and being a great host by creating a welcoming atmosphere. Long term volunteers, who stay for four months to a full gap year, will also be trained to work at reception or as a cleaning supervisor. We will also train you to lead different activities that fit to the people we want to reach. Examples of such activities are: Hostel Night, City Walk, Bible Inspiration Time, Open Mic Night etc.

Training

In our ministry we do not only focus on reaching out to guests. We also want to equip and prepare you for a life of ministry and service. And we want to help you to grow in your relationship with God. Therefore we have our own Ministry Training Program (MTP), which you will join twice a week. Furthermore you will take part in small group meetings and times of prayer and worship.

Our Christian volunteer opportunities vary from one month to one year. Ideally, we would like volunteers to serve for 3 months or longer. Especially if you would like diving deeper into faith and have the time, we recommend you to consider staying longer. We often see that volunteers want to extend their stay after a few months of serving. So consider staying longer on forehand: you won’t regret! If your visa allows you and you have the time, join our ministry for 4 up to 12 months.

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Share God’s love through hospitality in Amsterdam

In a context of hospitality, we strive to make the gospel of Jesus Christ known to the 40.000 guests who are staying in our two hostels in Amsterdam every year. Join our international community!